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6 New Ways to Use Pinterest in your Ecommerce Business

Pinterest helps people find inspiration, pursue their interests, and discover things they may not know about.

According to Pinterest, user interests fall into five categories.

Passion. Such as music, photography or sports.

Profession. Like a teacher using Pinterest to find lesson plan ideas or an architect sharing design ideas with a client.

Pastime. Someone does for fun.

Project. An end goal such as a wedding, household repair or redecorating.

Preference. Something that can change, like a person’s taste in colors or food.

Businesses that are successful in using Pinterest focus on their customers’ interests and provide content they want to see.

We have written a number of articles about utilizing Pinterest for ecommerce, but here are six new ways based on recent updates to its platform.

1. Optimize Pins for Search

Today, Pinterest has more than 750 million boards with 30 billion pins on its site, so finding useful information is all the more difficult.

To make it easier, Pinterest recently launched an updated search feature called Guided Search. “Now when you search for something (road trips, running, summer BBQ), descriptive guides will help you sift through all the good ideas from other Pinners. Scroll through the guides and tap any that look interesting to steer your search in the right direction,” said Pinterest.

Pinterest launched Guided Search to make finding information easier.

With so much content, search becomes an even more important avenue for people to find your business. One of the best ways to improve your search results is to refine your pin descriptions, as follows.

Make pin descriptions specific. Rather than describe a pinned item in general terms (“sweater”) think more specifically (“blue argyle sweater”). Use the same approach as you would when optimizing your site for Google or other search engines.

Pre-populate pin descriptions on your website. Include thoughtful descriptions on the products people pin from your website. You can use Pinterest’s widget builder to add pins to your site.

2. Reach Customers on Mobile Devices

In 2012, Pinterest improved its mobile app. As a result, today more than 75 percent of usage takes places on phones and tablets.

More than 75 percent of Pinterest usage comes from mobile devices.

With that in mind, it is vital to make your content more mobile-friendly. Here are a few tips.

Learn how Pinterest works on mobile. Acquaint yourself with how Pinterest’s mobile app works so that you can better understand how customers use it.

Make your pins and boards mobile-friendly. When you create boards and pins, think about how they’ll look on mobile devices.

Add the Pinterest mobile SDK to your app. If your business has a mobile app, use Pinterest’s SDK — software developer kit — for iOS and Android to add “Pin It” buttons to images in your app, which can help you increase your pins and referral traffic. After adding Pin It buttons to its mobile app, social commerce site Poshmark saw a major increase in both referral traffic and impressions, which helped it reach and acquire new customers.

Don’t forget your website. Pinterest drives traffic to ecommerce sites. Make sure yours is mobile-friendly either by using responsive design or by creating a mobile version of the site.

3. Leverage Pinterest Analytics

Which pins and boards are driving the most impressions, clicks and repins;

Pins that drive engagement across different platforms.

Pinterest’s upgraded analytics offer more data on pinning activity.

You must first verify your site to use analytics. Once verified, a checkmark will appear on your profile, confirming to Pinterest users that the website belongs to you.

4. Advertise Using Promoted Pins

Pinterest recently launched Promoted Pins, an advertising platform. Pinterest has developed do-it-yourself version similar to Facebook Ads and Twitter Promoted Tweets so that any business can advertise. According to Pinterest, Promoted Pins will be available on a cost-per-click basis through ads.pinterest.com.

Pinterest launched a do-it-yourself version of Promoted Pins.

5. Follow Pinterest Portfolio Boards

Pinterest has put together a collection of boards, to inspire users and businesses, from creative professionals around the world.

Pinterest started a portfolio of boards and pins to inspire creativity among users.

6. Get Featured on Pinterest’s Business Blog

From time to time, Pinterest spotlights businesses talking about unique ways they use the platform. Submit your Pinterest profile and a brief description about how you use Pinterest for your business. Who knows, you might be featured.